Thomaï Alexiou

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki | AUTH · School of English Language and Literature

The book at hand constitutes a collection of selected papers on the Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) methodology and the ways in which it can be incorporated in contemporary classroom settings through the use of Board Games. Each chapter deals with a different aspect and introduces a new perspective to the incorporation of board game...

Στο παρόν κεφάλαιο παρουσιάζεται η διαδικασία καθώς και τα αποτελέσματα της διερεύνησης των αντιλήψεων Εκπαιδευτικών αγγλικής γλώσσας, Νηπιαγωγών, Συντονιστών Εκπαιδευτικού Έργου (ΣΕΕ) των δύο ειδικοτήτων και γονέων, τα οποία αντλήθηκαν στο πλαίσιο του προγράμματος ΕΑΝ. Στόχος ήταν να αναδειχθούν κρίσιμα ζητήματα σχετικά με εισαγωγή της αγγλικής γλ...

Το πρόγραμμα ΕΑΝ, πέραν της ανάπτυξης του κατάλληλου παιδαγωγικού και μεθοδολογικού πλαισίου με σκοπό την επιμόρφωση των εκπαιδευτικών αγγλικής γλώσσας και των νηπιαγωγών, όπως και τη δημιουργία ενδεικτικού εκπαιδευτικού υλικού, σεναρίων και δραστηριοτήτων για τα παιδιά προσχολικής ηλικίας, στοχεύει στη διερεύνηση των αντιλήψεων των εμπλεκομένων, κ...

Στόχος του προγράμματος ΕΑΝ είναι η υποστήριξη των εν ενεργεία εκπαιδευτικών στο έργο τους αναφορικά με την εισαγωγή της αγγλικής γλώσσας στο Νηπιαγωγείο. Για τον σκοπό αυτό, η συγγραφική ομάδα ΕΑΝ του ΑΠΘ ανέπτυξε 34 ενδεικτικά εκπαιδευτικά σενάρια CLIL που πλαισιώνουν περισσότερες από 150 δημιουργικές δραστηριότητες στην αγγλική γλώσσα στο πλαίσι...

Μετά την πιλοτική εισαγωγή της αγγλικής γλώσσας σε 58 νηπιαγωγεία (βλ. Alexiou, Penderi & Serafeim, 2021) αποφασίστηκε η οριζόντια εφαρμογή σε όλα τα δημόσια νηπιαγωγεία της χώρας και η υποστήριξή της μέσω του προγράμματος Επιμόρφωση εκπαιδευτικών για την εισαγωγή της αγγλικής γλώσσας στο νηπιαγωγείο (ΕΑΝ). Το πρόγραμμα ΕΑΝ έχει ως στόχο την ανάπτυ...

The present paper presents some of the initial findings regarding the new educational reform of introducing the English language in preschools in Greece during 2021-2022. The "Introduction of English in Preschools", known as the EAN Project, aims to develop the appropriate pedagogical and methodological framework for English language teachers and p...

The present paper offers an analysis of the educational scenarios designed in the context of the EAN project in Greece aiming at supporting EFL preschool learners and their educators. The scenarios are in accordance with the latest methodology for early foreign language education but also in line with the new Greek preschool education curriculum. T...

As of September 2021, the Ministry of Education has decided to officially declare the implementation of English in all Greek state and private preschools and this was realised through the funded project EAN. In this paper, the main objectives of the EAN Project (“Teacher training for the introduction of English in preschool education”) - the projec...

The paper investigates the emotional impact online learning had on university students during the Covid-19 pandemic. For this purpose, a quantitative research was conducted in which 83 university students answered a questionnaire. The results indicated that, although the students feel confident with their technological skills and the support they h...

This paper presents a review and evaluation of the pilot introduction of EFL in pre-primary schools in Greece, which took place for the first time in 2020-2021. The main characteristics of the pilot scheme are portrayed along with the process of monitoring and investigating its implementation so as to discuss the basic findings presented in the stu...

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION TO BASIC TERMINOLOGY AND IDENTIFICATION OF LEARNING DISABILITIES CHAPTER 2. ASSESSMENT AND READING DIFFICULTIES CHAPTER 3. WRITING DIFFICULTIES CHAPTER 4. INSTRUCTIONAL APPROACHES AND METHODS CHAPTER 5. BEST PRACTICES IN READING CHAPTER 6. EFFECTIVE INTERVENTIONS IN WRITING CHAPTER 7. ADAPTING AND ACCOMMODATING MATERIALS

Given the gap in the literature regarding the integration of the CEFR in the Early Language Learning (ELL) classroom, this paper aims at presenting the philosophy and characteristics of the new CEFR Pre-A1 level descriptors included in the new Companion Volume (Council of Europe, 2018/2020), 1 discussing their theoretical underpinnings and examinin...

The volume serves as a testimony of the miracles teachers perform as well as the vision academics share for education and at the same time constitutes a valuable source of contributions made in the field. The volume covers an array of different parameters and factors that target the holistic development of the child. It is a rich discussion on the...

A series of recent research studies highlight the significance of vocabulary and suggest that vocabulary development is paramount in the successful development of a foreign/second language even by very young learners (Biemiller, 2003; Alexiou, Roghani & Milton, 2019). The number of words a learner knows is considered a decisive factor in the perfor...

Language learning aptitude is undeniably an important factor for future language learning success. Despite recent research on university students who are characterized as gifted (Dai & Renzulli, 2008; Feldhunsen & Moon, 1992) and young learners’ aptitude (Alexiou, 2005), few studies examine school-aged gifted learners. This study aims to fill this...

English as a foreign language has been introduced to pre-primary educational contexts across Europe and abroad, and a large number of preschools, both state and private, have made considerable efforts in this respect. There is an abundance of studies that show benefits from introducing EFL at pre-primary settings, and notwithstanding some initial r...

This volume contains a selection of nineteen articles that focus on skills and strategies for advancing English language teacher education in several contexts where English is taught to speakers of other language. The volume focuses on the teachers and learners as the prime participants in the learning process. The papers selected for inclusion rep...

A large number of research studies confirm that vocabulary development is a decisive factor in the successful development of a foreign language. As a result, modern curricula today are quite precise over the volumes of vocabulary that learners are expected to acquire at all levels. There is also a tendency to explicitly present vocabulary goals in...

This activity is for students at B1 CEFR level of English proficiency and above.

This volume contains a selection of eighteen articles that originated as papers presented at the Applied Linguistics and Language Teaching International Conference and Exhibition (ALLT 2018), which was held at Zayed University, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in March 2018. The articles selected for inclusion showcase high quality contributions that d...

Animated stories constitute an indispensable part in children’s life and an invaluable audiovisual means able to function effectively as an educational tool. The present study aims atexploring the impact of a cartoon show on children’s EFL lexical development. To that aim, 30 Greek primary school learners watched a set of episodes of the Charlie &...

The present paper examines the vocabulary contained in the British animated programme Peppa Pig and investigates whether the vocabulary included is frequent but also appropriate for beginner learners of English. It also examines if there is any formulaic language in it. Comparison with the BNC wordlist and with the CYLET and EVP wordlists for begin...

The present study focuses on the cartoon series Peppa Pig and aims to investigate the cultural elements and moral values promoted in it. For this purpose, a corpus of all the episodes of the show has been compiled and qualitative research has been conducted to explore these aspects. Results show that Peppa Pig promotes multiculturalism, fosters the...

Language learning strategies are not confined to the classroom but can be extended to cover the whole context of learning. Where learners are part of a minority language group within a much larger national language environment, this context can include the language used for everyday life in the home. It might be thought that enhanced exposure throu...

This paper presents an experimental small-scale case study that investigates the use of Total Physical Response (TPR) method in combination with games such as Twister and Wii and its impact on foreign language acquisition.Ten (10) 6-year-old children participated in the study. Furthermore, we observed and noticed young learners' reactions and attit...

The present paper aims to investigate the learning style profile promoted in Magic Book 1 and Magic Book 2 (henceforth MB1 and MB2), the EFL coursebooks developed for 8-9-year-old learners in Greek state schools. This is an innovative study because it focuses on young learners’ learning styles as these are approached and developed through the tasks...

The present paper aims to look into the effect of content and language integrated learning (CLIL) instruction on learners' content knowledge. The study took place in a Greek primary school where CLIL has been implemented for the last six years. Two groups of 6th graders participate in the study: an experimental group which is taught geography in En...

English Foreign Language (EFL) learning may constitute a difficult or even painstaking endeavour for any Greek learner but for a learner with Learning Difficulties (LDs) it may be an extremely demotivating experience. Students with LDs and in particular dyslexia have distinctive educational needs which stem from difficulties they may face in master...

The present paper aims to sketch the profile of CLIL instructor in Greece. By contrast to most European countries where CLIL instructors are mostly generalists or subject teachers, in Greece CLIL instruction has been assigned either to specialist foreign language teachers or to teams of foreign language and subject teachers. After the recent pilot...

Twelve Turkish-Greek bilingual learners of English were orally administered a translated version of the SILL questionnaire (Oxford 1990) and had to specify frequency of language learning strategy (LLS) use as well as confidence in the effectiveness of each strategy on a [01] bar instead of the usual Likert scales. Deviations between frequency and c...

The present paper aims to investigate the learning style profile promoted in Magic Book 1 and Magic Book 2 (henceforth MB1 and MB2), the EFL coursebooks developed for 8-9-year-old learners in Greek state schools. This is an innovative study because it focuses on young learners’ learning styles as these are approached and developed through the tasks...

This chapter presents a small-scale case study that investigated the influence of comic series in English as a foreign language (EFL) vocabulary acquisition. To that aim, Greek preschoolers watched a set of episodes of the Peppa Pig comic series in English and then they discussed the plot and the heroes with their teacher in Greek. No explicit teac...

During the pilot implementation of English as a foreign language to 6 years olds in Greek primary schools, a survey of teachers’ attitudes reveals that the learners’ difficulties were often ascribed to specific learning problems especially among non-native speakers of Greek. If this is correct then the response is alarming but reveals some dangerou...

The current study investigated the effects of age, gender and L1 strategies on strategy use in English as a Foreign Language learned by primary school learners in Greece. Data were obtained (a) through the administration of Oxford's (1990) Strategy Inventory for Language Learning to 103 participants of fourth, fifth and sixth grades and (b) through...

This paper aims to present the implementation of CLIL method in Greece as a pilot project in the 3rd Primary School in Evosmos-Experimental School of the School of English in the academic year 2011-2012. This is Greece's first official attempt to introduce CLIL in state primary education. The subject taught through the CLIL method was Geography and...

This paper presents the findings of a one-year (2011-12) research project implemented at the 3rd Primary Model Experimental School of Evosmos, Thessaloniki, Greece. The project aimed to incorporate authentic literary materials (i.e., fairytales) into the EFL curriculum. 29 third-graders participated in this project. It was hypothesized that through...

Technology affects all aspects of education changing the way we teach and learn (Paulsen, 2001). Researchers support that educational technology can facilitate language learning (see Felix, 1999; Warschauer, 1995; Warschauer, Schetzer & Meloni, 2000) and has positive outcomes for children (McCarrick & Li 2007; Penuel et al. 2009). The present stud...

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English language was introduced as a compulsory subject of the Greek state school curriculum in the last three grades of primary education in 1987. In 2003 English was extended to the last four grades while at present, pilot programmes introduce English at the first grade of primary school in 800 state schools around the country. A thriving private...

To date CLIL classroom research has primarily focused on the language performance of CLIL and non-CLIL learners. The study of the strategies CLIL learners adopt has not as yet attracted research and thus very little is currently known about how these learners approach learning and what strategies they adopt to overcome language and/or content diffi...

Few studies focus on the instruction of vocabulary to very young foreign-language learners. How useful, frequent or even interesting are the words that Greek young learners have acquired by the end of their first couple of 'junior' years? This paper investigates the vocabulary used in five recent English as a foreign language (EFL) course books cur...

Teacher Professional Development (TPD) has been characterised as a lifelong process of growth which is mainly career orientated. Teacher Development (TD), on the other hand, is more inclusive of personal and moral dimensions and involves the teachers’ active participation in a reflexive analysis of their practices. The paper focused on the case of...

Although Greek children's early start with foreign languages is considered an advantage, this seems to be lost in their transition to secondary school. Learners in their first year of secondary education are usually required to repeat work covered in previous years and as a result, they often lose interest in English classes within the state school...

This paper presents a vocabulary size test in Greek as a foreign language derived from the first 5000 lemmatised words of the Hellenic National Corpus. It is designed as a Greek version of Meara and Milton's (2003) X-Lex checklist test which has test forms in a number of other languages. Such a test should provide useful information to both learner...

In its earliest stages of development the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) included vocabulary lists in its materials and these gave some indication of the scale of the vocabulary knowledge that the creators were envisaging at the various levels of the framework. More recently these have been removed and learners, textboo...

There have been limited studies to show what junior level language learners are taught and why. Just how useful are the words that Greek young learners of about 7 to 8 years old have acquired by the end of their first 'junior' year? The present paper presents a qualitative and quantitative analysis concerning the vocabulary used in a number of rece...